Perspectives of a show:

In show business we have an audience, and everyone in that audience is somewhere. An audience member’s place and the conditions affecting that place moderates their intake of our (content). Attention to that perspective can help us as presenters effectively communicate with our audience.

Whether it’s a message, an idea, or an emotion, we’re trying to communicate something to our audience. If we have the guts to get up and share our (content) with people, we likely believe in that (content). From our own perspective, we have something entertaining or worthwhile to give. Our challenge becomes to convince our audience of that notion.

To effectively convey our content we need to consider the perspective in which our audience is consuming it. Below are two videos of the same concert from different perspectives. See how your experience differs between the two videos. (you can just scrub through the videos to get the idea)

Video 2 is taken by a random audience member. That person is not concerned with much other than capturing a rough resemblance of his individual, live experience, perhaps to remember later. Though, from that one location (via your computer) the show is… kind of boring. This is because we (as viewers of the clip) don’t share that guy’s full and true perspective. We can’t look over at our friends singing along, we can’t feel the bass from the subs, and we didn’t excitedly wait hours in line for tickets. We just clicked a video link on a blog.

Through camera switching in Video 1 the perspective is adjusted to the most appropriate angle for that moment of the content. These constant changes are made in order to best deliver the song to its viewers. When the song is instrumental, the shots might bounce around capturing action. When lyrics are sung, there’s more likely to be closeups on the singer. The creator of this content uses this technique to engage us and hopefully evoke an emotion toward the song. The hope is that the audience will remember the song or perhaps take some action to engage with the artist further.

Whether we are presenting a song, a joke, a sales pitch, or just trying to represent a certain identity, we need to constantly consider the perspective of our audience. Doing so empowers us to move our audience and hopefully influence them as we intend.